Harry Potter and The End of the World
by r2r4l
Summary: This is an AU cross-over from Harry Potter and Fallout. It happens. By pure dumb luck Harry, Hermione, and Kreacher survive. M for violence and tragedy and multiple character deaths. One-shot, unless I decide to continue it someday. Pairings: Harry/Hermione.


**DISCLAIMER: ** I do not own Harry Potter, Stargate, or anything you may find in my story that in any way resembles a character, story, or plot that is owned by another person.

Review Responses, if any, are at the end of the chapter.

**Harry Potter and The End of the World**

**A/N**: slight change from canon. Harry did not throw away the resurrection stone or snap the elder wand. And it gets even more AU from there, actually entirely AU.

Chapter 1

After the final battle Harry stood there in possession of all three Deathly Hallows.

He was the so-called Master of Death, even though he was yet to find out what that legendary title bestowed upon him, if anything.

Unknown to anyone save for a small secret sect of Death Eaters that were unknown to even his Inner Circle, that he created for this one and only purpose, Voldemort had a failsafe conspiracy in place should he actually die. If he could not live forever and rule the world, then the world could just burn.

Exactly 24 hours after Voldemort's death, charms went off simultaneously in the war rooms of all major world nuclear powers giving the illusion of a first strike by enemy powers targeting each faction and their allies, combined with strong area of effect confundus in each said war room which made the people strongly believe it was confirmed. Within minutes of each other, all of the nuclear weapons of each nuclear weaponized country were launched in a variety of directions at all known and suspected enemy enclaves.

At that moment, Harry and Hermione were just sitting by the Black Lake contemplating the war they just fought. Ron was nowhere to be found at the moment, he was visiting the loo.

Suddenly Hermione looked up and saw ICBM's and MIRV's reaching apogee and others headed outbound to and from various directions and she gasped.

"Harry, look up! do you know what that is?" exclaimed Hermione.

"If you mean does that look like the muggles just started WWIII, then yeah I know what that is." replied Harry, calmly thinking 'that figures'.

"Harry we have to get out of here, find somewhere safe now!" shouted Hermione.

"Yes, but what us safe from that?" asked Harry.

"The only thing I can think of is underground. Harry, they are starting to come down, we don't have long." answered Hermione.

"The only thing I can think of is the basement of Grimmauld Place, in the dungeon space where Remus had his monthly problem. I don't think we would make it back to the castle in time and we could apparate there." said Harry.

"Okay," Hermione paused to whisper 'Sorry Ron, hopefully you'll be safe in Hogwarts,' and she said "lets go!"

They apparated. The house was empty save Kreacher and they both yelled, "Kreacher follow us to the dungeon, hurry, it's an emergency!"

Kreacher popped to the dungeon the same time as Harry and Hermione arrived there.

Harry slammed the door and locked it with Colloportus wondering how the hell that was going to help. But he was running on instinct at this point.

At the same time they heard thunderous explosions overhead and Hermione and Harry jumped into each others embrace hiding under the big stone table in the room, Kreacher not wanting to hug anybody but, knowing panic when he saw it jumped to join their embrace, shaking, and looking very frightened.

"Mione," Harry said. "Shields you think?"

"Yeah guess so, it couldn't hurt." Hermione answered.

And all three erected their strongest shields over the three of them.

They continued to hear and feel loud explosions and what felt like many strong earthquakes, several large and sudden rises and drops of severe pressure, and waves of heat that their shields seemed to just barely keep out.

"I don't know if these shields are actually working or if we're just too far away from it, but lets keep it up." said Hermione.

And they each doubled their spells and concentration. This lasted over 30 minutes, then about 45 minutes in they heard their last dull popping sounds and rumbling in the distance. They relaxed from their tight embrace and listened... for 15 more minutes...

Finally Hermione said "Harry, I don't know how much you know about this stuff but my Dad was a survivalist nut and he sorta drilled some info into my head. One thing is that if that really was global thermonuclear war, then its probably over now."

"Everything is probably over now." she said somberly looking down.

"Oh my god-Mum, Dad, Ron..." Hermione exclaimed.

"We need to go check on everybody but it wont be safe. Radiation, smoke, fire, the whole environment will be poisoned." Hermione said.

"Our shields seemed to work to protect us. What if we kept shields up, we'll just need to recast them every so often, plus we can add bubble head charms to that and we can breathe." said Harry.

"Right. We will need to recast the bubble head once just before each hour and not let them fall or we will have to recast them with fouled air." replied Hermione.

"Kreacher, what about you?" asked Hermione.

They looked at the trembling old elf, who seemed more sane than ever- he said, "I have elf version of shield and bubble head. In fact I can keep mine on all three of us all the time, you don't need to tire your wizardy magic, but we must stay close together." said Kreacher.

Hermione and Harry nodded to each other and harry said, "Okay then, that's what well do."

"I'll side along apparate all three of us using the power of the elder wand and you maintain shields and air for us Kreacher, okay?" said Harry.

"Okay master." replied Kreacher.

'Good Mione?" asked Harry.

"Yeah, seems like as good a plan as any." she replied. 

It would still be a while before they figure out that the only thing that actually saved them was the shield from the elder wand. 

...

Let's start by looking around here to see how bad the damage is." said Harry.

Kreacher, bring up your shields on all three of us and maintain them until I say to drop them." ordered Harry.

"Yes, master, shields are up." answered Kreacher.

Harry dropped his shield and Hermione followed.

He couldn't budge the door.

"Damn!" he said, and he fired an overpowered Reducto at it which blew the door to smithereens.

They expected to see the main hall and a ceiling, but all they saw was sky and the remains of the house. The sky almost looked peaceful except for the evil cloud formations that were visibly brewing.

"Holy Shit Hermione! Look at this." exclaimed Harry.

They walked out and saw that the only thing left of Grimmauld Place was the room they had shielded themselves in. When they looked back they could see a strange pink glow from the stones of the room that made it look like it had just been on fire and was just now starting to cool.

"That is probably what is happening." remarked Hermione.

"I'm beginning to think the only reason we survived this was the shield from that elder wand." said Hermione.

"Look at this, we're not even underground anymore the entire development was leveled including most of the soil two floors above us." said Hermione.

And they started to climb the rubble to indeed get to the original surface where some of the road pavement could be seen.

"Merlin..." whispered Harry.

"There's nothing..." he continued.

"Mione, do you think your parents were safe in Australia?" asked Harry.

"I don't know, god I hope so, but now I'll have to wait and see... I will need an international portkey to even try..." replied Hermione.

"Lets," gulp, "go check on Hogwarts" she said. 

...

Hermione put an arm around Harry's waste and Kreacher took his free hand and Harry apparated them to the front gates of Hogwarts.

"Oh god!" Hermione exclaimed with both hands over her mouth.

There were no gates.

There was nothing recognizable of the grounds. What was left of the forest were burning sticks in the ground. No creature life such as centaurs or a simple bird, to be seen.

The castle... ruins. There were a couple towers still standing or at last partially, but most of their support looked like it could go any minute. The roof was clearly caved in many spots and huge parts of the walls were destroyed. The Gryffindor tower was completely gone.

gulp, their throats went dry, their best friends!

"Harry, surely Hogwarts could've withstood this?!" pleaded Hermione.

"I'm sorry Mione, it doesn't look like it." said Harry.

"Let's see if we can find Ron, Ginny, or any other survivors..." said Harry.

They made the long walk up to the castle and already started to see what looked like snow falling.

"Snow?" Harry exclaimed.

"No Harry, that would be nuclear fallout. Now that the fires in the atmosphere are dying down the cold air is having its effect and all the radioactive soot in the atmosphere is condensing and will fall looking like snow, spreading radiation everywhere and onto the surface of everything." answered Hermione.

"I hope the shield really can protect us from this. Whatever you do don't go out of your way to touch it or anything that's been touched by it." added Hermione.

"In fact," she started...

and Hermione pulled out a set of dragon hide gloves normally used for handling toxic potion ingredients. "We'll use these if we need to touch anything." she continued.

"Argh... this is a nightmare..." said Hermione.

As they continued to walk they saw no sign of survivors or life whatsoever.

Ironically they were met at what remained of the entrance by the Hogwarts ghosts, even the Grey Lady and Moaning Myrtle, who was at the moment downcast and silent.

If ghosts could look more morbid than usual, this lot did.

Sir Nick, who knew them best approached and said, "It is good to see you three survived," including Kreacher in his remark. Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, you may not want to go in there..." he continued.

"Sir Nick, we need to know. Did anyone survive?" asked Harry.

He just shook his head no, and said "I'm sorry. Magic wards and shields could not protect against that much pressure and fire." said Sir Nick.

"But we did?!" Hermione started... "The elder wand... It is the only thing that makes sense." said Hermione.

At that proclamation the Grey Lady took notice and approached them.

You possess the death stick?" asked the Grey Lady.

So, Harry showed her...

"Oh, I see... Do you have the other two hallows as well then?" continued the Grey Lady?

Harry nodded and showed her the stone and his cloak.

That explains it then. "You are the Master of Death, Thrice Charmed, Invulnerable... the magic power you now command is unconquerable, even by Death." explained the Grey Lady.

The other ghosts, at least those old enough to know what she was talking about nodded their heads solemnly...

Then the Friar came forward and said, "Master Potter... you have the power, will you please send us on to the next world? Most of us no longer wish to be here especially now."

"Of course, if you want to. You will need to tell me how though, I haven't a clue how to do that." answered Harry.

"It is the standard exorcism spell, but with that wand wielded by the thrice charmed, it will work on us magical ghosts too." said the Grey Lady.

"Okay, does everyone want this?" asked Harry.

They all murmured yes... except the Grey Lady, Helena Ravenclaw.

"I will stay. I would walk the world with you a while longer, if you'll have me. I know many old secrets, you may benefit from my guidance in the days to come." said the Grey Lady.

Hermione and harry looked at each other and shrug-nodded... "Thank you, Lady Ravenclaw, we'd be honored for your help." replied Harry.

You're welcome, I have the feeling the future of the magical world, maybe the whole world, may rest on your young shoulders now..., but please just call me Helena...

...

Helena showed harry how to cast the exorcism spell and he did so on all of the ghosts, when it was Myrtles turn she blushed as much as a ghost could and thanked Harry for avenging her.

The irony wasn't lost on Harry that he came here seeking the living and all he found were the dead, and they didn't want to stay here any longer either. It felt like he was killing them all over again, even though he knew that wasn't the case.

Now the motley party of four silently trudged into the ruins of the castle... Helena floating of course. She told them they did not need to search the castle room by room, that she and the other ghosts have already looked over everything. There were no survivors, but there may be some interesting objects that survived they might find useful or of some value.

For one thing and for some reason, much of what was in the Headmasters office remains intact.

So they went there first.

Trying their best to ignore the unidentifiable remains of dead bodies as they went, thank god the bubble charm from Kreacher kept out any smell...

When they arrived in the office, they found no one, no bodies either but everything else was intact.

They saw that all the portraits were there all murmuring amongst each other, including Dumbledore...

Harry got their notice with a loud faked "AHEM..."

Dumbledore yelled for the portraits to all stop, as they had visitors.

"Harry, my boy, and Miss Granger, Kreacher... it is wonderful to see you three alive?" greeted Dumbledore's portrait, sounding as much like a question than a statement.

"What has happened? What was all that destruction? How come we cannot find another living person or even link to our other portraits. We have confirmed that the Ministry of Magic is destroyed as well." asked Dumbledore.

Harry asked Hermione to explain, as she understood muggle nuclear war better than he did...

After she concluded there was silence...

All the portraits hung their heads in sorrow, some were crying...

Dumbledore composed himself and answered Hermione's final question as to why this room appeared to survive.

He explained that this room possessed the master controlling heart stone for Hogwarts wards, a ward stone that was created by Merlin himself and passed down to Rowena Ravenclaw by inheritance, which she donated to the school to power its wards.

"Apparently it has some power equivalent to the hallows based on how you described your survival. Quick thinking by the way. Congratulations, after a fashion. I don't think I'd want to be alive now to see this. What are your plans now?" concluded Dumbledore.

They really didn't know. So they decided to sit here for a bit and let the events start to sink in and think about it.

Eventually they decided they should keep on the move, to try to find other survivors. So they would take everything of use with them and if there came a chance to restart any kind of magic school they would reuse what they could. They truly expected to find this level of devastation over the entire world. But, there might be isolated pockets of survivors. They would search for them.

Hermine still had her magic purse full of all their supplies from their travels, so they had a comfortable tent for the three of them, and a few weeks left of food and drink supplies, some first aid supplies and a ton of books, you know Hermione.

Albus taught harry how to use the elder wand to permanently transfigure 2 featherweight bottomless backpacks. One would be to collect and carry any potentially contaminated items they found on their travels and the other all the good magical and other preserved and confirmed safe items. They would each take turns carrying the 'bad' back pack, purely for psychological reasons. It wouldn't hurt either of them with all the charms Albus had them put on it. Albus didn't know anything about muggle radiation but he knew many reliable charms that would report the general health and safety of any object they wanted to test so it amounted to the same thing.

Albus then guided them through ransacking his old office for all the good things they would want, all of this was shrunk and went in the 'good' backpack. This included all of the portraits and all the furniture. He talked Harry through steps to make two copies of his portrait and transfigure each into an armband so that he could be with each of them always to mentor and tutor them with magic and through him they would have a way to stay in constant communication with each other if they got separated. They agreed eagerly seeing the benefit to this.

They acquired quite a collection of books which on a normal day would have made Hermione very happy but not today, a storage box of old confiscated wands that just happened to never get snapped, the magic quill and the accompanying master book of new Hogwarts students. Which ought to help them identify and locate any newborn magicals in the future, should there be any, they hope...

And finally the Merlin heart stone, which while apparently weakened was not destroyed. Albus explained how they could recharge it over time and use it to secure a new abode for themselves when they decide to settle somewhere. He was saddened but he knew Hogwarts was being abandoned now, there was nothing for it. The past was all but destroyed other than what these two young people could carry with them, which thankfully due to magic would be quite a lot he mused. But, nevertheless its their future he needs to help them secure now.

They collected the sorting hat, a pair of omnioculars, a magical astrolabe, a telescope, a sneakoscope, a foe glass, a probity probe, a secrecy sensor, a bowl of lemon drops laced with a mild calming draught, a very fancy luxurious wizard chess set on its own ornate custom table with matching chairs, pensieve and a collection of memories from Albus and even a select set of ones from various former Headmasters, a cask of floo powder which might be all but useless now, a magic carpet (Shhh... said Dumbledore my little secret, not that it matters anymore), he still had the Sword of Gryffindor too. When they went to shrink Fawkes old perch, said turkey flamed into the room.

The original portrait of Dumbledore, the last one still hanging on the wall said, "Hello Fawkes old friend... I didn't think a bit of fire would finish you off... have you come to say goodbye then?" he asked.

Fawkes let out a sad warbling tune of melancholy that to the lightsiders present lifted their spirits, then he flew over to Harry and bit him on the neck drawing a little blood, and repeated the same with Hermione.

"Oh I see." said Dumbledore.

"Well excellent!" he continued.

"It seems Harry and Hermione that dear Fawkes has decided to bond himself to the two of you, to accompany and help you on your journey. A finer friend and ally you could never have." said Dumbledore.

And so it was, with everything packed, and with another copy of his portrait left on the wall in case any other stragglers came to visit. Therefore he could inform Harry and Hermione or conversely inform the visitors of their whereabouts with their permission of course.

An even more eclectic party left the office than entered it: Harry, Hermione, Kreacher the House Elf, Fawkes the Phoenix, and the Ghost of Helena Ravenclaw, with a shrunken copy of Dumbledore's portrait on the kids armbands.

A good first day of scavenging thus far...

Helena led them to the Chamber of Secrets of all places and suggested they salvage useful items from the basilisk carcass that could be useful to them in the future...

Dumbledore remarked why did he never think of that but he showed them how to do it. They tested and the radiation had not got down there yet and with the magical nature of the basilisk it was still perfectly preserved and probably still would be for a couple more decades. They left with preserved supplies in unbreakable containers of 60 foot of basilisk hide, 4 gallons of venom, all of its teeth, and they took all 1200 pounds of basilisk meat too because Dumbledore said that stuff would be worth a fortune to the Goblins. If they survived they could use that to bargain with them for help when they needed it.

At Hermione's insistence they checked the library anyway, but they found it simply did not exist anymore, the room or anything. She thought they would have better luck with the potion stores since they were in the dungeon, they found remnants but it was all worthless.

Helena finally convinced them there was nothing else of use in the castle or grounds.

So they discussed what was next.

They decided they would make the rounds of some key places in Britain, find what they can, if nothing then Dumbledore would teach them how to make a portkey to go check on Hermione's parents in Australia.

The first stop was Gringotts. It was leveled of course, as the rest of Diagon Alley with it. But they saw some Goblins scrambling around in the rubble so they went to see them.

Both parties were equally astonished to see the other. Harry explained that they were the only survivors they knew of so far. Confirmation from the portraits that the Ministry is destroyed along with all the many households these portraits had copies in and Hogwarts itself. They introduced Helena and Fawkes which they recognized, and Albus portrait to help explain what they were doing and to help talk to the Goblins.

The Goblins lost many lives too. The surface and first couple levels were utterly destroyed. Fortunately, most of their civilization lived deep underground.

They explained that they are a salvage crew. Soon once they've recovered what they can, King Ragnuk had ordered the closing of Gringotts. The tunnels to the surface will be sealed and the goblins would resume their ancestral living strictly underground, as there were no surface dwellers to make it worth their while, present company excluded.

Harry told them he had a great deal of salvaged basilisk meat and hide he could trade them for supplies and access to their vaults one last time... before they too leave to make a new life. The Goblins eagerly took the party to see the King when they heard of the basilisk meat.

They were flabbergasted at the amount of basilisk meat the kids had. They were willing to bargain much for the lot if it. It would be a welcome addition to their own survival needs as well as morale right now.

For the lot of the basilisk meat, half the skin, half the venom, and half the teeth: the King assigned Quickhammer, one of his top blacksmith/artificers who happened to be a committed bachelor, to Harry's service for as long as Harry wanted him as they seek to salvage something of the magical world. They kept back 10 lbs of the Goblin delicacy for Quickhammer. They said that such a noble party as this one simply must have a Goblin in its number anyway, to make sure the humans didn't screw things up worse.

They let Harry clear out his vault of 800,000 galleons, which they exchanged 400k of for 10,000 one ounce gold Sovereign's from the Royal Mint, the idea being these might be more useful to them than galleons in whatever is left of the muggle world. They also just gave them the 1,000,000 British pound sterling bank notes and coinage they always kept a stock of for routine exchange, figuring it was worthless now, but if anyone could use it Harry and his party could. They gifted him the magical scabbard that went with the Sword of Gryffindor and told him to just keep it with bygones being bygones, he would probably need it. They gave Hermione a complimentary Goblin made short sword and scabbard of equivalent quality, saying the young lady should not be the only unarmed member of their party. They didn't consider wands to be real arms after all. Finally, the last item of trade for the basilisk meat was a one year supply of ordinary human, elf, and goblin food and drink for the 4 living members of their party, to tide them over until they find a good supply of safe food again. Quickhammer had his own magical tent and weapons and whatever other supplies a goblin needed and could take care of himself.

Harry was astonished at how nice the goblins were being and how much they got for the basilisk. Albus said the basilisk would've been worth more in just raw galleons in a normal world, but this way they got a better balance of what they truly needed at the moment... to venture into this new world...

With that done they toured some more places of importance to them. First to Hermione's house. It was leveled, nothing to see, nothing to salvage...

Even though they knew the student body was at the school they went to check on certain families...

Longbottoms...nothing.  
Weasleys...nothing.  
Lovegoods...nothing.

Hermione didn't know if she could go on doing this...

So, they decided to verify the Ministry...

There was rubble where it was supposed to be and they didn't feel any magical wards there anymore...

It was useless...

Then Hermione thought to check the WWN radio...

Feeling hopeful for a moment she dug that out if her pack, turned it on and... nothing...

They all sighed... Even the Goblin, ever heard a Goblin sigh? It's terrifying.

Then Hermione remembered her Dad had a small bomb shelter under the house with some supplies, including radios... why didn't she remember that before? she thought.

They returned to Hermione's old house, then spent a couple hours carefully levitating chunks of ruins off to the side to get to the spot in the basement where she said her Dad had the entrance to their shelter.

When they got to the entrance it was still in tact. Hermione asked harry to erect a large shield around the entrance to the shelter before they open it to keep radiation out of, it hadn't gotten in already.

Harry did so and Hermione opened it. "Everything is still here!" she exclaimed.

"Check for contamination." Harry reminded her.

She did and said it is clean.

She had Harry permanently transfigure another bottomless pack, and she aimed her wand and said 'pack' to the contents of the shelter and collected everything in one fell swoop.

She explained, "We can go through all this stuff later. We need to get settled somewhere for tonight. I'm starting to get tired. It's been a long day, it's almost dark, I'm hungry, and I'm coming down off the adrenalin rush." said Hermione.

"I agree." said Harry, with a nod from Quickhammer, "let's figure that out." he said.

"We should probably set up somewhere we think is relatively safe before we start again tomorrow." Harry continued.

"Where do you think?" Harry said.

"Let's just go back to the Chamber of Secrets. No one even knows its there, even if they did discover the Hogwarts ruins now. You can recreate and reseal the entrance with parseltongue again and we would be safe. We can set up our tents there and have plenty of room." answered Hermione.

...

Quickhammer was rather happy to be back deep underground.

...

That night after they ate and they retired to their tents Hermione asked Harry if she could sleep with him, she wanted him to hold her... she didn't want to be alone. Harry's eyes lit up as if to say, 'whhhattt?' and she said "not like that Harry or at least not tonight," she said with a wink... which made Harry blush. "I just want you to hold me." Hermione concluded.

So they changed into their night clothes and went to bed... Harry and Hermione in an embrace. If harry was honest with himself this felt right with her next to him. Then Hermione said out of the blue.

"Harry, do you love me?" asked Hermione.

He replied, "Of course I do Hermione. You know that I've always loved you." answered Harry.

"Well, I mean... like you loved Ginny?"

"Yeah, a little bit for sure..." Harry said with a blush, but what about Ginny, what about you and Ron?" replied Harry.

"Do you love me?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, I always have." and she squeezed him a little tighter.

"Like that?" asked Harry.

"Uh huh." she answered.

"What about Ron?" he replied.

She was silent for a minute then said, "Well we, that is neither one of us, have Ron and Ginny anymore. I'm sorry I said that, I know its too soon, but its true and I don't want to go on like this in this world all alone." explained Hermione.

"Hush Mione. I do love you, and you'll always have me now." said Harry.

Then he reached over and gave her a soft kiss on the lips that briefly deepened to more, then they stopped.

"Thank you Harry, I love you." said Hermione.

"I love you too, my Mione, good night." replied Harry.

And they went to sleep... 

...

The next morning...

Nope, it wasn't a bad dream...

Quickhammer had setup a work bench and was busy crafting a set of basilisk hide armor for Harry and Hermione to wear over their muggle clothes. Complete with basilisk hide hood for their pullover top and basilisk hide gloves that would also protect them when handling anything radioactive or cursed, and basilisk hide boots. This was the sort of thing he was good at after all.

Hermione setup another table and started going through the items salvaged from her Dads shelter, with Harry's help.

While Kreacher made breakfast.

Helena just alternated between watching Quickhammer's work and what Hermione and Harry were looking at.

Hermione found her Dads shortwave and regular radios and supplies of necessary batteries. She explained they would need to wait until later on surface if they would have any luck with those.

She also found a mini library of doomsday survival manuals her Dad had and some interesting prepper magazines he had subscribed to. They would take turns reading through those to see if they could learn any tips to help them out.

Hermione said to put the rest, food and water supplies, medical supplies, and so forth in with the rest of their supplies of the same.

Helena suggested why don't they remodel the chamber to their liking and make it their new home / headquarters, at least until they find another community of survivors they would want to move in with. It had survived well enough. Even wizards didn't know where it was and with it sealed again and the Hogwarts wards done they could enter and exit via apparation. It is pretty secure and big enough that they could house dozens more people in there comfortably if they took on any refugees.

So, they decided that is what they would do for the short term. This allowed them to unpack some more stuff and pretend life was a little more normal. As if. But, anyway.

Getting the place 'basically' set up and cleaned up with many scourgify's and banishment's; it would work like Helena suggested. They also found that the chamber indoor pond was fed by an underground stream which appeared at least so far to be uncontaminated.

At Albus' suggestion since they would stay here a while, he showed Harry how to setup the heart stone to power wards in an envelope just to cover the chamber and the immediate area above it. This way they could add a certain level of magical protection and intruder and even toxicity alarms and set anti-apparation wards and unplottable and notice-me-not and anti-muggle wards that only they would be keyed into. Then he showed them both how they could each once per day cast a certain spell to begin re-powering the heart stone. Over time, they could re-charge it to its full potential.

During the afternoon after they all sat around after lunch reading through Hermione's survival books, Harry found an interesting article in one of her Dad's old magazines.

"Look here Mione. It says that in the US, the US Government sponsored the building of a bunch of underground vaults to protect a certain number of people in the event of a nuclear war, which was designed by a company called 'Vault-Tec' with the help of another company called 'RobCo Industries'." Harry started.

"The article continues in Part 2, of the next edition of the magazine, where they say that one demonstration vault was made in Los Angeles, and when the program got approved they started building them all over the Washington, DC area, their capitol city. It went on to say that plans eventually called for similar Vault networks to be built in all the other major cities, but clearly with yesterday they ran out of time." continued Harry.

"I wonder if they actually finished them and if any people survived over there? And I also wonder if there was anything like that built anywhere else, like here in the UK or other parts of Europe?" concluded Harry.

"Hmm. I don't know. Dad said a lot of the stuff they wrote in these magazines wasn't true. That some of it was just made up conspiracy stuff or fear merchants trying to sell ideas and things to people based on their fears. He never mentioned these vaults to me. But, like you saw my Dad had a small shelter built. Back in the 50's through 70's when the muggle Cold War was still 'hot' so to speak on everyone's minds it was popular for people to build these for themselves. And here in England, there were still many old bomb shelters built from the WWII era that some people just refurbished and brought up to spec. So, there might be some. But who knows. Probably somewhere. Like, if me and my family were home when we noticed this, you'd have found us in that shelter just now. Alive? hopefully, but I don't know."

_To be continued? (I don't know... until then a little one-shot plot bunny. Hopefully you could see where this would end up going. The question is do I want to write it?)_

**A/N**: I know the canon timeframe for the Vaults is in their future, I am ignoring that, AU remember? and making it contemporary with their times.


End file.
